The date palm, Phoenix doctylifera L., is the most important fruit crop in the Middle East, cultivated since prehistoric times. Since mid-eighties the dreaded pest of palms viz. the red palm weevil. Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Oliv. has been reported to cause serious damage to date palm in certain pockets of the Gulf region. The pest subsequently spread to most of the date growing centers in the region and attained a key pest status. The unique agroclimatic conditions prevailing in the Middle East and the nature of the crop, coupled with transportation of planting material have helped in the rapid development and spread of the pest in a short period of about a decade Feeding of the soft tissues by this concealed borer often leads to the death of the palm. if timely curative measures are not adopted. However, taking up curative measures in the early stage of attack is often not possible as detection in infestation in the early stage is difficult. Moreover, the presence of neglected date gardens, beheaded palms, retention of unwanted off shoots etc. make the problem intricate. To tackle this problem from various angles and successfully combat the pest, the following Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programme is suggested. The major components of the IPM strategy are surveillance, trapping the weevil using pheromones lures, detection of infestation by examining palms. Eliminating hidden breeding sites, clearing abandoned gardens, maintaining crop and field sanitation, preventive chemical treatments, curative chemical control implementing quarantine measures and training and education.

A mutant with yellow seedcoat colour was isolated by NAYAR (1968) in the mustard variety 'Rai-5', This mutant was crossed to the national check cultivar 'Varuna' in order to develop improved strains with yellow seedcoat. Four such strains with yellow seeds were evaluated for their seed yield, yield components and percent oil. Two strains TM-9 and TM-17 were more productive than 'Varuna' in seed yield. All the yellow seeded strains showed higher oil percentage as compared to 'Varuna'. The seedcoat in the yellow seeded strains accounts for 14-15 % of the seed weight as compared to 18 % in the black seeded 'Varuna', The higher proportion of the cotyledons and embryo accounts for the increased oil percentage in the yellow seeded types.Rapeseed and mustard are the second largest oilseed crops of India, contributing about 21 % to the national edible oil production. Till late 1960s all the Brassica juncea genotypes available in the germplasm collection in India had black or brown seedcoat. A mutant with yellow seedcoat colour was obtained at this Research Centre in B. juncea (NAYAR 1968) and was designated as Trombay Mustard-1 (TM-1). The seed size of TM-1 was smaller with a 1000 seed weight of 1.97 g compared to 3.42 g for 'Varuna'. Using this mutant, attempts were made to evolve improved strains of B. juncea with yellow seeds (NAYAR 1979).The mutant TM-1 was crossed to the black seeded strain 'Varuna' and selections were made based on yield, yield components, plant type and seedcoat colour, leading to the improved lines TM-4 to TM-17, Out of these, four strains, TM-4, 9, 12 and 17 were evaluated for yield and yield components. The net size of each plot was 4,65 m^ with 30 cm spacing between rows and 10 cm among plants. Urea (50 kgN/ha) was applied 20 days after sowing. The crop was irrigated and pests were controlled by 0.07 % Malathion and 0.07 % Methyldemeton spraying as and when required.For seedcoat weight, seeds were soaked in water for 4 h, seedcoat and embryos were separated by hand and oven dried, Seedcoat weight was estimated from the dry weights, U,S, Copyright Clearance Center Code Statement: 0179-9541/86/9701-0086$02.50/0

Chlorophyll was added to refined and bleached canola oil before hydrogenation, and the effects on hydrogena‐tion rate, fatty acid composition and the percentagetrans isomers were determined. The hydrogenation rate was greatly slowed down by chlorophyll under selective (200 C and 48 kPa) and nonselective conditions (165 C and 303 kPa). Higher levels of chlorophyll reduced the reaction rate more than the lower levels under both conditions. Dropping points were slightly higher for the nonselectively hydrogenated samples than for the selectively hydrogenated ones. Addition of 1 mg/kg or more chlorophyll decreased the solid fat content under nonselective conditions. Addition of chlorophyll reduced thetrans isomer content under nonselective conditions. Nonselective conditions also resulted in a greater decrease of 18:3 and faster production of 18:0 than selective conditions at all levels of chlorophyll addition.

The use of the aggregation pheromone, Ferrugineol (4-Methyl-5-Nonanol) has become an important component of the integrated Pest Management strategy currently adopted to trap the red palm weevil Rhynchophorous ferrugineus oliv., a pest which infects date palm Phoenix dactylifera L. throughout the Middle East. At present two formulations of the pheromone, Ferrolure and Ferrolure+ are widely used. In order to maintain the continuity and efficiency of the trapping system, it is essential to have a constant release of the pheromone into the environment and replace exhausted lures with fresh stocks. ldentification of exhausted lures becomes difficult, especially when the pheromone trapping program is undertaken on a Iarge scale. The present study aimed to develop an easy method to assess the field longevity of the lure, to find out the difference in longevity of lures during winter and summer and to assess the release of the chemical, when the trap is exposed to direct sunlight or is set under shade. This investigation, besides developing a handy scoring technique to assess the status of the pheromone lures, revealed that (i) the lures were exhausted faster in summer as compared to winter (ii) longer field longevity of the pheromone could be obtained by setting traps under the shade (iii) both Ferrolure and Ferrolure+ released the same quantity of the chemical into the environment under shaded conditions, but when traps had to be exposed to sunlight, Ferrolure+ lasted longer than Ferrolure.

A simple method for the determination of total sulfur content in vegetable and marine oils is described. The method involves combustion of the oil sample in an oxygen bomb to convert all forms of sulfur to sulfate ions with subsequent determination of the sulfate by ion chromatography and indirect ultraviolet detection. The ultraviolet system described is more sensitive than conductivity detection and enables the method to be applied more widely.Application of the method to a variety of vegetable and marine oils showed the general occurrence of sulfur in fats and oils, albeit often at a low level. Among the samples examined, crude Canola oil had the highest sulfur content (25.0 mg/kg) followed by the marine oils (5.8-15.2 mg/kg} and the non-Cruciferae vegetable oils {2.0-6.